Today’s
The World Around Us
will be presented
in Turkish,
with subtitles in Arabic,
Aulacese (Vietnamese),
Chinese, English,
French, German,
Indonesian, Italian,
Japanese, Korean,
Malay, Mongolian,
Persian, Portuguese,
Russian, Spanish
and Thai.

Hallo, and welcome.
Today’s program
on The World Around Us
brings us to
a beautiful place in Turkey
called Cappadocia.

Cappadocia is
a central Turkish region
in Nevşehir province
and is known for
its exceptional beauty.
It also has
a rich cultural, historical
and spiritual heritage.
Let’s go for a guided tour
of this special area
to find out more.

If we carefully look ahead,
we can see
different animal figures,
newly developing
small fairy chimneys
in the distance,
or like those dolphins
climbing towards
the mountain.
And furthermore,
we can see the statue
which is likened
to Mother Mary
by a great majority
of our domestic
and foreign visitors.
This is a beautiful valley
visited by hundreds
of thousands, millions
of tourists every year.
What we mentioned
as the fairy chimneys
are those formations
we see over there,
the formations
in a conical shape
with a hat on top,
chimney rock.

The earliest settlers
in the Cappadocia region
saw the formations,
which are quite different
from their surrounding
geographical appearance.
They concluded
that these rocks could not
be made by humans
depending on their
geographical knowledge.
And thinking
that these could not form
as a result of erosion,
they thought that these
formations were chimneys
made by fairies and
named it accordingly:
fairy chimneys.

Today, a few stories
concerning the fairies
are being narrated
in Cappadocia region.
According to
one of these stories,
thousands of years earlier,
fairies and humans
used to reside here
together, yet could not
get along with each other
at all.
At that time,
a fairy and a young man
fell in love with each other,
but because
humans and fairies
have conflicts, they
objected to this marriage
and at the end,
the humans made a plan
to get rid of all fairies.

So they organized
a fake wedding ceremony
and invited all fairies.
The plan of the humans
was to kill
all fairies arriving
at the banquet during
the wedding ceremony.
No wonder, they organized
a fascinating
wedding ceremony and
all fairies were invited;
however, just at the moment
they were about
to kill the fairies,
the fairies noticed
the set up and they all
turned into pigeons
and flew away.
From that day on,
hundreds of thousands,
millions of pigeons
can be seen across
the Cappadocia region.
And human beings, ashamed
of what they had done,
made houses
for the pigeons –
that’s to say, the fairies –
and took really good care
of them.

Cappadocia is a region
that was formed
as a result of the eruption
of volcanic mountains
millions of years ago,
and these fairy chimneys
have formed due to the
effects of erosion caused
by the rainfall and winds
of a million years
and survived in
their existence up to now.
Seven to eight
thousand years ago,
people living
in the Taurus Mountains
in the south and
Black Sea Mountains
in the north migrated
to this dried inland sea.

And the most important
settlement period
in Cappadocia is
the post-Hittite period.
The name
of the Cappadocia region
originates from
the renowned horses
called Kapkatuka used
during the Hittite Period.
That’s the origin
of Cappadocia,
is Kapkatuka,
which means “horses”
in Hittite language.
Cappadocia in that period
meant the “Land
of Beautiful Horses.”

Today, there are
more than 100,000
carved rock houses
in the Cappadocia region,
and once, people used to
live in those houses.
There are more than
1,000 Greek
Orthodox churches.
There are
Greek Orthodox churches
dating back to the 3rd,
11th, 12th centuries
and in some places
even as near
as the 13th century.
We can say
that Christianity
bloomed in Cappadocia.
And there are
approximately 35, 36
underground cities
in our region.

Starting from Hittite period,
humans carved rocks
and volcanic tuffs
with bronze tools and
lived in such dwellings
during Early Hittite period,
Early Bronze Age, namely
in the years 3000 BC.
However,
during Christianity,
starting from
the 3rd century AD,
there was an
intensive migratory flow
of Christian people into
the Cappadocia region.
And these people used
these underground cities
as shelters in order to
hide from pagans,
Romans and
Non-Christian societies
here until the mid-1400s.

Yes, now we are
at the entrance
of this underground city.
We see a tandoor
on the floor.
Whenever the people
took refuge in this city,
they used to
make their bread here.

Here we see
a special place built,
cleaned and modified
for the city
to receive daylight.
Yes, on our way
to the underground cities,
we are passing through
narrow and long galleries.
All floors are insulated
from each other
by sliding stones,
the so-called millstones,
Thus, connection
between the floors
is cut off.
So if there is an enemy
intrusion in the first floor,
they could use here
as a shelter
and probably sometimes
they had to wait here
for one week or
in some occasions 10 days
for the enemy to
withdraw from the region.

Now, please follow me,
and watch your head!
Yes, over here, we see
one of the sliding doors.
They just look like
those stone doors
in Indiana Jones movies.
These sliding doors
were rounded by
metallic tools outside and
placed into their slots to
prevent enemy intrusions.
There are amphoras,
in which they used to
keep linseed oil
and sometimes foodstuff.
This place was used
as store.

Amphora is
a type of ceramic pitcher
manufactured
since 2000 BC.
And because of
its round bottom,
it does not stand
on a flat surface.
It is placed into a pit
on the ground.
It is a very functional
ceramic household utensil.
Sometimes substances
like wheat and couscous
were also kept in them.
Here, dried fruits
and vegetables
have been kept as well.

Yes, in the old times,
between the 3rd century
and 15th century,
people who lived
during Christianity after
the birth of Jesus Christ,
used to do their prayers
in these small rooms when
they were in shelter here.
And while living here,
people did not have
a separate section
for each family, there
used to be communal life.
They shared everything
with each other
and ate together
and I think there was
a small room for a family,
only for sleeping.
Yes, this is a cistern.

Here, people collected
the water they would need.
As I stated earlier,
there are tens
of underground cities in
the Cappadocia region,
some of which go deep
as low as 50-60 meters
below ground.
The underground city
we are in
is not a very deep one.
It consists of
two to three stories
and we are able to
go down as deep
as 20-25 meters.

Next, we visit Pasabsgi,
or Monks Valley,
where some of
the most beautiful capped
fairy chimneys
of Cappadocia are found.

Fairy chimneys
are composed of three
fundamental sections.
These are, respectively,
cap, neck and body.
If you look carefully,
you can easily see
that the parts
of the neck and body
are completely separated
from the part of the cap.
Cap and body
are black in color
while the neck part is
a light, whitish color.

Here, there are houses in
the shape of a monastery
where the monks lived,
and churches
where they prayed.
As you can see, every day,
thousands of tourists
visit this place.
The most obvious reason
for calling this region
Monks Valley
is because there are houses
which were carved
into the rocks.
Yes, now we are
in one of the churches
in Monks Valley.
As we explained earlier,
there are thousands of
Greek Orthodox churches
in this region.
The oldest one
of these churches was
built in the 5th century
and the most recent one
in the 13th century.

After our visit
to the underground city,
now we are at
a aboveground cave city,
people used to reside
in these cave houses
up until 50-60 years ago.
As we said before, here is
Güvercinlik Valley, and
if you take a close look
around this valley where
volcanic tuffs (rocks)
are found, you can see
rocks in different colors;
red, yellow and green.
And it is because of
the minerals and elements
which can be found
in the volcanic tuffs.
For example,
there is a lot of basalt
or andesite in the tuff,
it becomes black in color.
If there is a lot of iron,
due to ferrous oxidation
that rock becomes red
in color, and
if there is a lot of copper
in the tuff, it creates tuffs
greenish in color.

The ingenious design of
the underground caves,
which once kept
the Christians in safety,
is a marvel
even in modern times!

Right now, we are inside
Özlice underground city
in the town of Özlice.
This underground city has
recently been cleaned up
by the Ministry
of Culture and Tourism
for the visitors to see.
Mr. Ahmet Sivritepe, who
is from the town of Özlice
that is above
this underground city,
will inform us
regarding the stones
that can be found around
this underground city.
Yes, Mr. Ahmet,
What are these used for?

This is used
for grinding stalks
from the field.
These are the millstones
used for making
bulgur and couscous.
This circular stone
is used to level and
make compact the ground.
It is used to flatten and
harden the threshing floor.

Over here,
we see the basalt stone.
Basalt stones, which are
eruption streams
of volcanic mountains,
are hard if they contain
silica in them, but
there are also soft ones.
In the ancient times,
the basalt stones were
used for making jewelry
for women,
such as necklaces, rings,
and mirrors.

I was born in this house
in 1957,
and four generations
of my family, my ancestors
were born here and lived.
This is
a very beautiful house.
It was built as a house
during the Seljuk period,
and our family lived
in this house
for four generations.
Currently, I am living here
as a tenant
and want to protect
this cultural property.
The interior is cool
in the summer time and
warm in the winter time.
It is a very well-planned
house with its kitchen
and tandoor (oven).
Since the Seljuk period,
this house has been home
to many great families.

There are many
fascinating places
all over the world
that are worth visiting.
Cappadocia is definitely
one of them.
The natural wonders
as well as the underground
and above-ground
cities and caves
are truly amazing.
May people continue
to be inspired by Turkey’s
Cappadocia region.

Adventurous viewers,
please now stay tuned
to Supreme Master
Television for
Words of Wisdom,
after Noteworthy News.
May your virtuous deeds
be met with the love
of the universe.